Arvid Lindblad has admitted he is “a little bit disheartened” not to have been given the chance to deputise for the injured Isack Hadjar at Red Bull, with Liam Lawson again called upon for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza this weekend.

Hadjar fractured his wrist during a training session over the summer break and has now been ruled out of a second consecutive race.

After stepping into the RB22 at Zandvoort, where he qualified just 0.115 seconds behind Max Verstappen and brought the car home in seventh place as Red Bull’s sole finisher, Lawson has retained the seat.

The decision to stick with the New Zealander is a logical one, given his level of performance in the Netherlands.

Lawson, who sits ninth in the championship with 49 points, delivered a controlled and mature weekend at Zandvoort, reaching Q3 and scoring six points.

For Lindblad, the situation is a familiar one. When Lawson was first drafted into Red Bull for the Dutch Grand Prix, the 19-year-old Racing Bulls rookie accepted the decision with good grace, acknowledging that his limited experience made him a riskier proposition for a sprint weekend at a circuit he had never visited.

“To be honest, it’s my first time here to Zandvoort,” he said at the time. “It’s a sprint weekend. I’m only halfway through my rookie year, so I think it was, let’s say, a more logical decision to go with Liam.

“It would have been a bit more of a risk with me. Obviously, as a driver, I would have liked it; I would have liked the opportunity. But at the same time, I understand completely why they did what they did. And I’m very focused now on my own weekend and trying to do as best as I can.”

Two weeks on, and with Lawson having proved his worth in the senior car, the rationale for continuity is even stronger.

Lindblad, who has scored 23 points so far in his debut season without a single race retirement, recognises as much, even if the competitor in him would have relished the opportunity.

“I think I already answered that in Zandvoort,” the Briton told media, including RacingNews365. “I think it was unlikely that they would have swapped it now; it would have been more strange.

In the end, Liam’s accustomed to the car. He did Zandvoort, so it makes more sense to keep him.

“I already said in Zandvoort that, like any driver, I’m a little bit disheartened not to have got the opportunity, because we all want to be fighting at the front; we all want to do as best as we can. But I understand the decision. So yeah, it is what it is.”